LOKOJA—There was commotion at the Kogi State House of Assembly complex in Lokoja, yesterday, as armed Policemen barred the reinstated Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, MomohJimoh Lawal and 14 lawmakers loyal to him from entering the Assembly complex, leading to scuffle between the lawmakers and the security personnel.

Kogi-Assembly

Some aides of the lawmakers who the Commissioner of Police, Yakubu Usman, described as ‘hoodlums’ who “invaded’ the complex to destroy government property”, were arrested.

This came as the lawmakers raised alarm over threats to their lives by unknown persons sending death threats text messages.

The lawmakers, referred to as “G15 group” led by the embattled Speaker, had notified security agencies in the state that following last week’s court judgment, that they intended to resume sitting yesterday.

However, a combined team of Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, barricaded the complex, forcing the legislators to abandon their vehicles on the road and trekked to the assembly gate.

And as if prepared, one of the aides to the lawmakers cut the lock at gate open.

Vanguard gathered that security operatives had earlier before 9 am chased out all the workers in the complex and locked the gate.

The determined lawmakers said they were prepared to be killed by the policemen instead of not gaining entrance into the assembly.

Immediately they gained access to the complex, they commenced sitting.

But they were forced to adjourn till Tuesday next week hurriedly, after the security operatives regrouped and started shooting sporadically into the air outside the gate, ordering everybody within the complex to come out.

The sitting was done with a new gavel, and the maze that was declared missing when MomohJimoh was purportedly ‘impeached’, resurfaced, but the sergeant-at-arm and the Clerk of the House were however missing.

The drama continued when the state Commissioner of Police, CP, Yakubu Usman, State Director of Department of State Service, DSS, and his NSCDC counterpart stormed the complex and engaged the lawmakers in heated arguments.

The lawmakers later addressed the journalists at the entrance of the assembly and trekked back to their vehicle parked at some distance to the complex condone off by the security operatives who were in their hundreds.

However, some of the aides to the lawmakers were not lucky as the police arrested them and whisked them away.

The CP claimed they were “hoodlums who invaded the complex to destroy government property.”